i miss the good ol’ days of xanga where i could list my “currently reading”. i just bought Mark Steele’s (Flashbang) newest: half life die already. so far it’s holding up to expectations, which are exceptionally high.

today in an interview a candidate said a phrase that i had to write down. she was talking about irate customers (I’ve been interviewing call center people) and she said, “you just can’t dwell on it.” I wrote it down: check out my company notepad, it says “dwell on it.”

back in my Hebrew days i learned that it has synonimic meaning with living. a dwelling place -as in “how lovely is your dwelling place….” and don’t even tell me you didn’t start singing the early 90s rendition in your head – a dwelling place is the place which you reside, live, are currently inhabiting. that’s not the BDB definition, that’s the MWM def.

but my thought was… wow, that’s pretty sad if a person is living only in the experience of the irate customer. because, well, that’s not really living. that’s just agony. there’s so much more out there.

jj and i had a discussion this evening about parallel thoughts. he dwells in the past. nothing ever measures up to what he knows from experience. i dwell in the future. when X, Y and Z happen, then [fill in appropriate reason to begin enjoying things]. neither are friendly neighborhoods to set up shop.

we sometimes joke about our tendency to live a neighborhood away from “nice.” our house in upper was in a dumpy area, but a brisk walk away was a nice new development. our current home had it’s glory days sometime in the early 90s, but over by the electric tower is a new subdivision, complete with a “lake” (don’t be fooled. it’s a pond).

i’m shocked we didn’t see the similarities before. not only is our house just outside of “nice” but our ability to be content is just outside our grasp because of our dwelling. and not because we’re banging at the door and can’t get in… but rather we’re finding reasons to linger around the front or back door, hesitent to move in. that’s not so much the fault of the residence, but the potential occupants.